Last was definitely a week of over-reaching. Asian Communist leaders, like American second-place primary candidates, clearly don’t know when they are losing. They just keep going, no matter the dangers, no matter the doom.

China’s hardline is beyond hardline. This came out this week as an ambassador explained there is no negotiation with China. Beijing truly sees itself as entitled to everything; any discussion serves to inform China of how to get it and to help others discover that the world is as much wrong as it is China’s birthright. So, when the US plans another sail-by, the US isn’t just wrong, it’s ignorant and needs to learn. Right.

North Korean sabre rattling is normal each spring, as are the US and UN responses. It always has a different flavor, year by year. The difference this particular time was that the same “beyond hardline” stance of Bejing also became annoyingly glaringly apparent from Pyongyang.